THE reigning Open champion Padraig Harrington carded a round of 66 yesterday to move to five-under-par and into a share of fifth place before the third round of the Singapore Open was curtailed because of poor light.

Only 27 of the 72 players who made the cut finished their day’s work, with America’s Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els of South Africa also on five-under before both were forced to stop on the back nine.

Chapchai Nirat of Thailand leads on nine-under-par after completing 12 of his 18 holes, with England’s Simon Dyson sharing second place, two strokes back, alongside Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn.

Chapchai, whose breakthrough came last year with back-to-back wins at the European Tour-sanctioned TCL Classic in China and the Hana Bank Masters in Vietnam, said: “I had a game plan coming into this tournament and I will stick with that.”

The 25-year-old trained to be a monk before turning to golf and says meditation has been helping him to relax on the course.

Mickelson played 29 holes yesterday. He hit five birdies to wrap up his second round before a bogey at the last, triggered by a poor tee shot after a camera clicked as he was preparing to drive, left the American fuming.

“That is by far the angriest I have ever seen Phil in 16 years,” his caddy, Jim Mackay, said afterwards.

Mickelson somehow managed to compose himself before starting his third round, during which he scored an eagle and two birdies to put himself right back in contention. “I need to keep making birdies tomorrow,” he said. “I played well today, though.”

Home hopes of a surprise victory rest with Lam Chih Bing, who has a reputation for not being able to close out tournaments. He has managed only two top 10 finishes in 105 events on the Asian Tour.

He will start today’s round faced with a 15ft putt for par on the 12th hole, having been unable to play the shot as the darkness closed in over the Serapong course. “It’s been a long day but, all in all, a steady round,” he said.